LATE SURGE POWERS MEN’S LAX PAST HILBERT, 9-6

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Trailing 5-4 early in the third quarter, the Emmanuel College men's lacrosse team scored five unanswered goals en route to a 9-5 victory over Hilbert College Friday afternoon during spring break action at the North Myrtle Beach Sports Complex. The win was the first of the year for the Saints who improve to 1-3 overall while the loss dips the Hawks to 0-2 on the year.

With the score deadlocked at 4-4 at the half, Hilbert opened the third quarter with a goal from junior middie Drew Ulbrich (Lancaster, N.Y.) to go ahead 5-4 with 11:13 left in the third.

EC evened the score at 5-5 with a man up goal by freshman middie Tony Cibelli (Westboro, Mass.), assisted by sophomore middie Chris Curtis (Ashland, Mass.). Less than two minutes later, the Saints took their first lead of the game on an unassisted tally by sophomore middie Michael Rogers (New Haven, Conn. ) to go ahead 6-5 with 5:51 remaining in the third.

Rogers made it 7-5 with the help of a feed from sophomore attack Kaile MacLean-Daley (Moretown, Vt.) with 2:31 left in the quarter and then Curtis may have put the icing on the cake netting the eighth Saints goal of the match as time expired in the third to give EC an 8-5 cushion heading into the final frame.

Cibelli hooked up with junior middie Ryan Subda (Indianapolis, Ind.) on a feed in front of the net to bury Emmaunel's ninth goal of the game at the 13:34 marker in the fourth to bump their lead to 9-4 which was more than enough to preserve the squad's first "W" of the year. Ulbrich would cap the game's scoring with his third goal of the afternoon to make it 9-5 with 6:51 to play but the EC defense closed the door for the win.

Hilbert jumped out to a 2-1 lead in the opening quarter with goals from junior attack Elliot Russillio (Lancaster, N.Y) and Ulbrich while the Saints got on the board with a MacLean-Daley man-up marker.

The Hawks won the opening face off in the second and scored four second immediately on a Matthew Simon (Shirley, N.Y.) tally to go up 3-1 before Cibelli cut the lead to 3-2 with 11:28 left in the half. Senior middie Doug Takac (Elma, N.Y.) made it 4-2 before Emmanuel closed out the half with a pair of goals to even the score. Rogers and freshman attack Tommy Dion (Westwood, Mass.) scored just 12 seconds apart to account for the tied score at the intermission.

Emmanuel junior goalie Austin Lauzier earned his first win of the year making five saves while Hawks freshman goalie Brenden Deady (Albany, N.Y.) played well in defeat, stopping 12 EC shots.

The Saints return to action on Monday, March 17 when they head to Salem State University for a 7:00 PM contest while Hilbert is idle until March 26 when they take on Medaille College in Buffalo, N.Y. at 7:00 PM.